Koschei's Toclafane
by TheBadWilf
Summary: "Who are those creatures?" the Doctor demanded. "There's no such thing as the Toclafane. That's just a made up name like the boogeyman." "Do you remember," the Master asked, "all those fairytales about the Toclafane when we were kids?"


"_Who are those creatures?" the Doctor demanded. "There's no such thing as the Toclafane. That's just a made up name like the boogeyman."_

"_Do you remember," the Master asked, "all those fairytales about the Toclafane when we were kids?" _

In a large bedroom, on a large floor, in a large estate next to the red grass fields of Mount Perdition, a child of the House of Oakdown and a child of the House of Lungbarrow sat playing with blocks of Röentgen radiation. They had already built models of the council building and the capital to scale. Currently, they were working on the citadel of the Time Lords. The light from the window told them that the second sun was just about setting and the first was to rise soon. It was quite late in the night, but the young boys were too involved in their play to care.

"No, Theta. The citadel is only 15 stories. You need to remove the last two levels of blocks," Koschei pointed out to his friend.

Theta took a few steps back and examined his structure. "You're right," he nodded. The two boys went to fix the error. Standing on their tiptoes, Koschei bumped into Theta, knocking the citadel over with a loud crash. They both looked at each other with wide eyes.

"Theta! Koschei! You better not still be up!" a voice called from downstairs. The sound of footsteps could be heard as the owner of the voice came to check on the boys. They dove into their beds just as the door was opened.

"Young master Koschei, you haven't been up playing with your blocks again, have you?" the boy's nanny asked. Koschei let out a light snore. Theta started to laugh. Soon the boys were in a fit of hysterical laughter. "That what I thought," the nanny muttered. She moved closer to the children, sitting on the edge of Koschei's bed. "You know, it's a good thing you boys aren't actually awake. Because if you were, then I'd be worried. After all, we don't want the Toclafane to get you. That would be way too sad. Just think, another child, taken away by the Toclafane."

"What are the Toclafane?" Theta asked, sitting up. His face was covered in confusion and interest. Koschei's face, on the otherhand, was one of pure terror.

"You've never heard of the Toclafane?!" Koschei sputtered. "They're these horrible, evil creatures that come though magic doors just to hurt us! Go on," he urged his nurse, "tell him, Nanny."

Nanny started to rub the frightened child's back. "The Toclafane," she began, "are said to be the future of the great Time Lords. Sometime, far, far in the future, after most of Gallifrey is gone and those that survived the end of the world have gone off to start colonies in far away galaxies, there will be a hand full of Time Lords left. They will not abandon their duty to watching over time. But it will get lonely for them. Eventually the Time Lords will lose their minds, they will go insane. They will start thinking like children, cannibalizing themselves. Eventually, the last of the great civilizations will collapse and the Time Lords will turn themselves into new creatures. The Toclafane. They put their minds into little metal balls. They can fly and all they want to do is kill people. Kill the Gallifreyans who abandoned them and the planet so long ago."

Theta shuddered. "And what happens?"

"They keep doing what they did for all those eons. They monitor history, time, space. They watch back on centuries upon centuries of Gallifrey's history. They watch the fall of Omega, the Rise of Rassilon, the creation of the Academy. They watch our history. All of us. They watch every last child on the planet. Every time a child misbehaves, or doesn't listen, or throws a fit, or is bad, they remember it. They remember it all. One day, they won't take it anymore. They'll say 'These children are horrible. They are the rudest, most misbehaved beings in all of time. They are the reason Gallifrey has fallen. They are the reason we're left here.' And so the Toclafane will come. They will come through portals and rifts and tears in time and space. They will come to Gallifrey and destroy us all. All because children are misbehaving." Both Theta and Koschei hid under their covers. Neither moved out of fear. "That's why you need to behave and go to sleep when you are told. But don't worry, darlings, for every good thing a child does, they wait longer to come. For every good act, the race is redeemed for a short while. The Toclafane won't come as long as you are good." She got up and kissed them both on the heads. "Get some rest, my darlings, you start at the Academy tomorrow."

Nanny got tucked them in and shut the door. "Theta?" Koschei whispered.

"Yeah?" his friend responded.

"I don't think I want to become a Time Lord anymore."

"Me neither," he agreed. "But maybe, if we go together, if we stick by each other, we can fight this. We won't become like those Time Lords. We won't become Toclafane. As long as we have each other, we'll be unstoppable."

"Besides," Koschei added, "if things get really bad, we can always escape together. Like you said, nothing can stop us." And with that, the two boys drifted off to sleep.


End file.
